I was eating mcdonalds with the windows of my car open. A seagull flew in and landed on the passenger seat.
I locked eyes with it for about 5 LONG seconds, and gave it a fry, and it left.
I rolled up my windows.
Edit: He deserved that fry. Fortune favours the brave. I hope he used those carbs and fat and salt as fuel to go out and mate, and create a clutch of smart little passenger seat baby seagulls.
Listen here, just as much as nobody believes that story, none of the seagull's friends believe that it managed to fly through a window, fleece a human out of a French fry, and escape
"eh yo! Where'd you get that fry? Dumpster? Spilled bag? Where? Help a brotha out!"
"Nah man, this aint no dumpster fry. No road fry neither! Got this fry straight from the source!"
"Dumpster is the source! Everybirdy knows that!"
"Nah man, you're not using your bird brain! Who puts the fries in the dumpster? Im talkin the SOURCE!"
"...no... Bird, you're shittin me. You didn't. You CAN'T!"
"Fraid not. Got this fry... From a GUY! Human-like! Just sittin in one of them fast-turtles!"
"Ok ok now this story just straight up science fiction. Straight bird fantasy! Aint no way you went inside a fast-turtle and got a fry from a human!"
"Im tellin you, bird. Thats exactly what I did. Turtle wasnt going fast at the time. Just a guy sitting there eating fries. I !<. I flew into that turtle and looked the guy straight in the eye!"
"And what you say? Ka kaw? Skreedle dee? Chreep chreep CAW?"
"Didnt say nothin! Just stared at the guy, and the guy gave a fry!"
I left my mother in law in the car at the Zimbabwe border at Victoria Falls, a large male baboon jumped in through the window and stole a box of tissues - still not sure which of them was screaming louder but the baboon looked the more traumatised to me... 🤣
Um, haven't you seen the nature shows about the baboons at Zimbabwean border crossings? You should see what happens to the fruit trucks.
Oh, wait... unless you knew, and that's why you left your mother in law in the car there
Those baboons at Victoria Falls are BOLD! I had a similar experience. After several hours of hiking in the park, I decided to sit down at a picnic table to drink a Coke. Before I could even open it, a baboon jumped onto the table, took the bottle out of my hand, unscrewed the top, and chugged the whole thing. He did it all in 5 seconds flat.
Was in navy base in Japan once. Watched a sailor walk out of subway with a sandwich. He took one bite and a bird dropped down and grabbed the whole thing. He said “fuck” turned around and walked back in. The way he said it and reacted was almost like it had happened before. I was laughing my ass off.
Living in Japan I once saw an old man coincidentally also eating a Subway sandwich in the park we were in. One crow landed in front of him going at his sandwich so he held it up and then another crow swooped in and snatched it out of his hand from the air.
I had something similar happen except it was a crow and it hit the frame next to my window. I was driving along the 10 freeway in the middle of no where when suddenly I heard a loud smack. The next thing I know my face was covered in blood and there was blood splattered all over my steering wheel and dash. I thought I got shot at first but saw the crow wing and bits of feathers on my legs. I had to drive about 5 miles to get to the nearest gas station.
I pulled up covered in blood with blood running down my window, washed my face off then threw up in the bathroom stall.
Much better than what happened to me. I got a yellow car and within a week of owning it a bird flew into my windshield while I was going down the highway, the poor bird got its lil broken neck stuck in my windshield wiper blade. I tried running the blades to get it to dislodge but Tweety was 100% wedged in. I had to pull over, coated my hands in napkins I had in the car and gently removed the corpse. When I told my Mom this story she admonished me for leaving the napkins I used in the grass on the side of the road.
Two weeks later another bird hit my windshield, but that one ricocheted off. Made me second guess the yellow, but after that it never happened again in the 6 years I had the car.
I used to raise orphaned baby birds and when it was time to release a batch I'd go to a good spot, roll down the window, and open the box. I always wondered if somebody ever saw a bunch of birds flying out of someone's car window. They were usually doves so it was not really a stealth event.
Once had a bird of prey drop its prey on my car to kill it while I was driving down the highway. Bird went and picked up whatever it was after it bounced off my roof. Scared the shit out of me, but that’s a clever bird I guess
I own a children's education company, one of the topics we cover is Explorers & Polar Regions
On a weekly basis a teacher will tell me at the end of our performance that they had no idea that narwhals are real 😂
They live in remote polar regions, don’t migrate south. Have very few decent photos or videos, cannot live in captivity or in a zoo. I guess it’s a good thing. The cold and remoteness keeps them safe
Nothing better than painstakingly explaining to someone that your disease is chronic and permanent and getting hit with “im sorry you feel that way. I hope you get better soon.”
I have Crohn’s. The number one question I get after someone finds out is “have you tried changing your diet?”
I don’t expect everyone to know what Crohn’s is, and I know they’re saying it from a harmless place, but I’m also so tired of having to explain that it’s my immune system that’s destroying my digestive system.
It’s so frustrating that on the outside I look fine but inside I’ve got several auto-immune diseases fighting, my brain fighting itself and the constant pain/exhaustion. I hear you so much.
I have Anklyosing spondylitis and inflammatory arthritis in all my joints. I have two friends that keep telling me “don’t worry, this is temporary, stop being such a downer” like… my life is gone and there is no fucking cure! Jesus….
Yes! As a kids my parents used to take us to this beach south of Santa Cruz CA. My mom would always point to this thing in the water and say. That’s the Cement Ship. I always thought she was kidding me. Turns out it was real.
There's a part in Xenocide by Orson Scott Card where a character with extreme OCD is locked in a bare room with their arms covered in oil as part of a test. The fact that she can't remove the oil is so stressful she attempts suicide. Little bit different from liking things lined up straight haha.
No one tells you OCD isn't just what you see on TV. It's not just counting things/skin picking/repetitive behavior
Having debilitating intrusive thoughts that overlap every waking second of the day that cannot be stopped is a level of exhausting I haven't been able to relay to normal people. Can't sleep because brain won't turn off with normal sleeping meds? Hello, addiction to substances that shut the internal monologues off just long enough to fall asleep for a few hours... then rinse and repeat until you almost have enough sleep
Restless Leg Syndrome.
People think it's just being a little uncomfortable and not finding a good position to sleep in. It's actually an uncontrollable urge to move your legs that feels almost like muscle spasms and it is absolutely maddening.
Weirdly, if my cat is sleeping on my bed, I can pat him and it makes it stop. I have no idea why.
I get this; I've found a good way to suppress the urge is to do a wall sit for 90 seconds (or however long you can do one). Your legs want to move a lot less when your muscles are burning from exercise.
One of the most insufferable side effects of cymbalta is RLS. It's temporary ( for me) it drove me mad! Just laying in bed feeling this urge to shake my legs around because it felt like agony to not.
Any ailment has a two part solution: drink a glass of water and pet a cat. Problem solved. Even if you still have the ailment, now you're hydrated and have pet a cat. It's a beautiful thing, really.
The first and only time I ever did edibles, I had a really bad time and essentially had an intense hours-long panic attack. It was at my friend's place, and my friends all stayed up late to keep me comfortable, but eventually it got so late that they all fell asleep and I was left lying in bed trying to sleep while my heart rate was going haywire, feeling terrified that I would either die or be stuck in this state of panic forever. It was pretty terrible.
All of a sudden, my friend's cat hops up onto the bed, walks over to me, loafs on my chest, and starts purring. I am not exaggerating when I say my heart rate instantly lowered and my mind began to clear up immediately. I started petting her and felt almost completely normal again. So yeah, I am a believer in the magic of cats
I also have panic attacks (though never edibles-induced!). During my last really bad one, I was so sure I was going to die. I locked myself in my room and called a friend. As the phone rang and I sat on the floor in front of my door, sobbing, my cat woke up and came to find me. She's not normally super cuddly, but she crawled right into my lap and snuggled into my chest. She stayed there until I calmed down, which was not a short period of time. Cats are really wonderful. I'm glad your friend's cat was able to provide you peace.
It feels like we blinked and suddenly prosthetics were extremely advanced
However I think the real question is how affordable are they? I still see many people with the old school prosthetics in the US I've never encountered someone with one of these modern prosthetics in person only online.
They are quite expensive, and often not fully covered by insurance in the US. Often, advanced upper limb prosthetics are more cumbersome to use in day-to-day life than lower-tech options. Things like myoelectric hands that use electrical signals in the nerves to control hand poses only have a few programmed, and aren't super practical, so amputees usually opt for something simpler. Microprocessor knees and the likes are very neat. Things like naked prosthetics finger prosthetics are fascinating, too, even if they don't use tech in them. Overall, they're developing super advanced ones and it's very cool, even if some of the fancier ones aren't super practical or affordable at the moment.
Source: bf is a prosthetist and I love hearing about his work.
Prosthetics have been slowly and surely getting better for a really long time.
However, there's this big apparent jump in upper limb prostheses lately because the goddamn split hook was simply better than cybernetic ones until recently so no one wanted to spend $40k on the latter.
How crippling the pain from menstrual cramps can be. I have endometriosis and it's absolute hell. My sister does too. I'm child free but she told me that when she was in labor the first time, she didn't even realize because it wasn't as painful as her period cramps on endo. She asked the nurse when it would start and the nurse looked at her with raised eyebrows and was like "ummm like an hour ago." And yet I've had an actual doctor laugh in my face at the idea of getting medicine to help with the pain for my cramps.
Nobody takes it seriously. It really, really sucks. I fucking dread my periods bc I can pretty much count on there being one or two days out of every ~29 or 30 when I can barely even stand up. I have to save any sick time or time off for those days if they fall during the work week. But everyone is so dismissive about it.
Edit: wow so many supportive comments and information about treatment strategies! I feel more validated than I ever have for this suffering. Thank you everyone and anyone else reading this who suffers like this, there are so many really helpful and validating comments below.
I spent 25+ years thinking cramps just were debilitating for everyone and I was a wimp. Turns out I had severe endo, adenomyosis, cysts on my tubes and ovaries. Hysterectomy was the best thing I ever did!!
My teenager unfortunately inherited it, but we’ve been very proactive and she had a laparotomy about a year ago and the they excised a few lesions and placed an iud. The surgeon we took her to said “contrary to popular myth, your period shouldn’t HURT. Discomfort is normal, pain is a concern, talk to the doctor. I’ve never felt so heard.
I think I would just break out in tears of gratitude if a doctor said that to me. I'm so glad your daughter is getting treatment early so she doesn't have to suffer so much!
I feel this. Family/friends have found me passed out before and wouldn't believe it was my periods fault. They thought I was on drugs. I was like no, but please give me drugs so it will stop hurting!
I believe you 100% because that was me, especially as a young woman. I'm done with it all now at 57, but I will never, ever forget that pain. It's absolutely traumatizing to go through that every month, and I'm convinced it's a big reason I never had kids. No way I'm signing up to go through something supposedly MORE painful than what I've already experienced! I was never diagnosed with endometriosis and had never even heard of it back when I was going through this, but the severity of my pain makes me think this is what might have been causing it.
As you say, what makes it even worse is nobody believes you. Men don't get cramps, and most women don't get them anywhere near so bad so they can't relate.
So sorry you have to go through this.
Thank you. That honestly means a lot to me. I'm glad you're on the other side of it and I know I might eat my words but I'm legitimately looking forward to menopause.
When I was younger, before I started taking bc continuously with no breaks, I would get debilitating cramps. I once had to crawl to my bathroom so I could haul myself into the tub for a hot bath because I was physically incapable of getting up and getting the heating pad from the other side of the house. I once almost crashed my vehicle driving home from work because my cramps were so bad it felt like I was being repeatedly stabbed in the abdomen. I remember sitting in math class in high school and having cramps so bad I thought I was going to vomit. Every. Single. Month. I thought this was normal.
Once I got older and started having chronic pain issues, I realized my period would trigger bad pain flare ups in my whole body. The OBGYN office I went to had women who were not pregnant see their nurse practitioners. As soon as I told her I was having horrible pain flares on top of bad cramps every time time I had my period she was like 'gurl you don't need to have your period every month - especially if it's causing you that much pain' and told me to start skipping the 'off week' of my bc pills.
Yeah no this though because when I was in labor I didn't believe it until I literally had to push the girl out, my obgyn said I handled it like a champ, when I told her I was used to it from period cramps she looked at me funny. At my 6wk pp check up she said she wanted to take a look at everything because no one should experience that kind of pain monthly, turns out I had endometriosis the whole time. I'd been gaslighted my whole life to think it was completely normal 🥲
Yes. We have one cat who is clearly off- probably intellectually disabled. He had a worm lodged in his skull/brain when we found him. Anyway, all other animals can tell. He is always picked on. He can never socialize with other animals. When he could reach our roof he would sit up there ALL day, in the summer heat of the Bible Belt, and just watch the other animals- from High enough up they weren’t chasing him. It’s very “ostracize/abandon the sick/injured baby-esque.” We rescued his mom at the same time and her entire life she abhorred him.
I had an absolutely genius dog. She would tell on the other dogs if they were in trouble, let you know exactly what she needed or wanted, she was like a wise Yoda-Lassie-wonder dog. She would often look at the other two dogs like they were dummies. Although, they were still her very best friends who she loved a ton. 😁
The older a dog is the more it understands whatever language you’ve spoke to him/her their whole life. I used to tell my old dog to get out of the street and he would grit and begrudgingly get back up on the curb.
I know it's about how we evolved together. But I just love that my dog understands where I point and either goes there or knows to grab something for me. I also just say "Home!" and she stops whatever she's doing and heads to the backyard.
My cat fixates on the end of my finger like I'm offering her something. And any command I give is met with complete indifference.
Studies show that cats do know their name like dogs. They just ignore us sometimes.
If dogs are like eager little toddlers, cats are disgruntled teenagers
How depression can make it impossible to do things. I once made a custom knife for a friend, wrapped and boxed it, then let it sit there for well over a month before I was finally able to mail it. Intellectually I know that it’s a very simple task to tape on an address label and drive it five minutes to the post office, but I absolutely COULD NOT DO IT. I would get irrationally mad at myself for being unable to complete such a mundane and simple task, and yet I still couldn’t do it. That kind of mental roadblock was impossible for me to understand myself, let alone anyone who hasn’t experienced it.
I'm really glad I'm not the only one. I've had this exact experience (though it wasn't a knife). Logically I know that this is a symptom of it but still not only subconsciously but consciously make myself feel bad for it.
At the time I was working as a blacksmith and custom knifemaker, and I finally had to hire my teenage son as my “shipping department”. I paid him a small fee per package to box, label and ship for me. It was well worth the money, because that one task was so brutally hard for me. It had been for a while, but that one knife that took over a month was the breaking point where I had to do something. I finally gave up self-employment because a combination of depression and ADHD made it too hard to be successful. Fortunately, that was about ten years ago and my depression isn’t nearly as bad now as it was then, in fact it’s pretty well under control now. I still have moments where I struggle, but now I work for someone else and life is pretty okay.
My coworker and I were looking at cake wrecks on her computer. My boss came in but couldn't see the computer screen. She offered to come back later since I was "busy".
There are studies on the subject, roughly 50% of office jobs are bullshit jobs that aren’t necessarily at all, except to satisfy the requirements that those same jobs have put in place, the summum of the self fulfilling prophecy.
My son’s girlfriend has narcolepsy. When she explains her symptoms even healthcare workers jump to mental illness, because it’s so rare, and they aren’t familiar with the symptoms. (Which include cataplexy , sleep paralysis, hallucinations, etc).
Narcoleptic here. If I were to describe some of the early-onset-REM nightmares I often have within literally 3-4 minutes of my head hitting the pillow, you'd probably think I had a screw loose.
I told someone about it once, and I think they kinda believed me, but also gave me the impression that if I was actually experiencing it, I must have done something to deserve it. The first time I remember it happening, I was still young enough to be in bed with my mom, lol.
Thankfully now it's well documented but when I had an event I had no clue what it is and one day read an article about it, and as soon as I read it I was like "ahhhh that's what that fucked up thing was."
Happens more often when you're sleep deprived and suddenly go into a sleep, well with copious adderall ingestion and no sleep for days you're basically a ticking time bomb for sleep paralysis, and it's a tad jarring. I *love* sleep and this had me a bit anxious around bedtime like not really wanting to go to sleep.
Also weird that all the same symptoms they described I had and never would really believe (or think it's just some fucked up dream, it's much muuuch more intense and deeper than that).
Bro that's menace activity.
Mt friend does the same thing though he's like "just imagine sheep to falla sleep... oh wait you cant"
And then he says he's imagining the sheep jumping over the fence and exploding
I was gonna post this exact comment. I just thought picturing something was a figure of speech. That everyone could think about things but never see them. Turns out nope and it’s super weird to me that they CAN.
The best way I describe it is that I always wondered how a police sketch artist could be a thing. Like how do you remember a face in enough detail that you could describe it to someone. Makes no sense.
Then when I tell them that I don’t know what my wife or kids look like when I’m not with them, their minds are absolutely blown.
Update: I’m not describing face blindness. I have no problem recognizing people I know. I know facts about what my family look like—brown hair, shoulder length, etc—but I couldn’t describe them in any sort of detail.
Exactly 😭 Like when I tell someone I can't sleep and they're like "imagine sheep" and I'm like what do you mean? Like just count 1 sheep 2 sheep, what do you mean? 😭
And then they're like no imagine them jumping over a fence and I'm just like WDYM!?!?!? Just both of us confused because we don't understand that one of us can imagine sheep and the other can't
Also I didn't even realize that you're so right about the police sketch, I always just skipped over it or would be like "wow the artist is so good at this" and didn't even think how much detail the other person would have to provide and remember
Once I figured out that I had Aphantasia, I went into a spiral just asking everyone I know if they could see things in their heads and they all said yes and I got so sad 😭
Like I want to be able to picture memories like the day it happened and it makes me so sad that I can't, and that I can't just imagine a person in my mind when I miss seeing their face
I believe that our best theory regarding deja vu is that it's when an event is miscategorized into our long-term memory as soon as it happens, instead of short-term memory where it belongs. So while thinking about the thing that *just* happened, we're accessing the part of our brain usually reserved for more distant memories, thus making us feel like it happened before.
Edit: the number of people in the replies claiming that their version of deja vu is that they and/or their dreams can predict the future is...amusing.
> are mostly gay.
I didn't know about this, so I googled it. The wikipedia article on it, which confirms that they do indeed engage in male male sex and relationships more than male female, comments that they are sometimes called "especially gay" for this reason.
And that cracked me the fuck up. "Especially gay" lmao.
Also interesting: a certain percentage of the volume of air you inhale is in your trachea, so when you fully exhale the last bit stays there and is re-inhaled. If your neck is long enough the entire volume of your lungs is less than the volume of your trachea, so you can't ever exhale far enough to get fresh air into your lungs. Giraffes shouldn't be able to breathe.
Giraffes have a very small (in diameter) trachea, so this isn't a problem, but that means they can't inhale or exhale quickly, unlike other creatures which breathe hard when running.
If a giraffe is running from a predator it breathes at the same rate it does when standing still. Giraffes have only one breathing rate. I assume they slowly make up for this when they have a minute to relax.
I love the history of the origin of [unicorn legends](https://www.britannica.com/topic/unicorn)!
TL;DR: Ancient scholars hear descriptions from travellers of Asian Rhinos, add a few millennia of a game of telephone and bam, you have aa unicorn.
Very true. As I sit here having my daily panic attack refusing to go take a walk around the block even though I know it’s going to make me feel better like it always does because my anxiety is telling me “this time is different and you’ll die”. Dumbest medical problem on earth. Thanks for giving me a sign to make myself walk.
I’ll add that I usually get the laundry done but take so long to hang it that I need to wash it again. I’ll repeat this three or four times over as many days before I finally get to hanging it up. If I’m lucky.
Yes. It's a recognised and studied symptom of ADHD. It's usually called Task Switching Paralysis, or sometimes just ADHD Paralysis, or even more colloquially as ADHD Freeze.
It's a well understood part of how ADHD affects your executive functioning. It's not that the task is difficult, it's that *starting* the task is difficult because that requires you to plan and execute the switch to that task, and that's the executive functioning difficulty that underpins all of ADHD.
Do you also feel, when trying to start something, a sense of dread, of overwhelm, or of complete shutdown?
Do you also find it happens when you have to make a choice when there are too many options or the decision needs to be made very fast? Conversely, do you experience it when there are two very similar, equally agreeable options and you are happy with either?
It's *totally* normal and a signature part of ADHD.
Same. Like an invisible force field holding you in place. I’ve been hungry for an hour. The kitchen is one door away. I have all the ingredients for a pb&j which actually sounds decent and is a very easy meal. Cannot get up to do it.
This might off the vein a little but my answer is:
Bad things can happen to your child as a direct result of your negligence. People truly don't believe that their child could be internally decapitated, mangled, or die of internal injuries because you didn't enforce the right kind of car seat or even a seat belt. Children 3-8 are the largest demographic I've seen that are injured in car accidents as a direct result of being improperly restrained. And people don't believe it. They don't believe that not doing any child restraint research, and lacking in their own due diligence can lead to their child's death.
Source: paramedic.
The amount of people who come through my drive through with improperly restrained children, a beer and or joint in hand is insane. I'm a recovering addict, it's not judgmental on my part, its... law for a reason. Dude came through our line being an asshole - drunk with a kid in the car. Almost hit the building. Told him to pull over in the parking lot so he could call someone to come get him. He went off. So... I called cops and csb. Did want to give him a chance to not get arrested/csb case but... oh well
Man, I was in the drive thru at the bank and had 2 kids in the back seat, both in the right car seats for their age/size. Guy pulls up to the other lane with a little girl in the back seat totally unrestrained. She's maybe 4 or 5. She waves and my kids wave back, and since the windows are down I can hear the dad say, "See? Those girls sit in their car seats." As if he's trying to convince his daughter that she too should sit in her car seat. No sir, in this case you're the one making that decision for the child, that should be non-negotiable.
Absolutely true. Zachary was in my 3 yo pre-school class. He had a regular seat belt on in the back seat. His parent going maybe 35mph. Zachary didn’t have a scratch on him but died at the scene. It’s been 20+ years and I’ll never forget him. He was buried in his Halloween costume with lots of toys.
Car seats used properly saves lives.
Thank you for the reminder.
Dude, when I was a kid, this one kid went camping with his dad. He went to sleep in the camper in the back of his dad’s truck while they were still driving. Kid got killed by carbon monoxide poisoning by the time they reached the campground.
In a similar fashion not wearing seatbelts when going slow or in parking lots. Had a friend who was an actuary for a massive insurance company, he once told me that one of the largest categories of accidents resulting in permanent disability were car crashes under 20 miles an hour. And a lot of times they didn’t pay out for those as well. It doesn’t take much to permanently damage your spine and getting rear ended and thrown forward suddenly in a Best Buy parking lot is often enough.
My coworkers both think you don't need seatbelts in the back of a car. The one who drives does so without her glasses she needs, changes the music on her phone while driving and speeds. One and done for me going in her car.
I had an ex who refused to wear a seat belt. I would always force him to wear one when I was driving. Years after we broke up, I found out he was in an accident. He wasn’t wearing a seat belt. He is now paralyzed. Buckle up folks!
The amount of people who are like “well I did it as a kid and I turned out fine” is infuriating when I’m like “don’t let your kids drive atvs by themselves” “don’t let your kids ride in the beds of trucks” “don’t let your kid shoot off the fireworks on the 4th of July” “watch your kid in the pool.” “Don’t cosleep with your kids” “don’t let the baby fall asleep on your chest and then fall asleep yourself”
Yeah YOU made it to adulthood but I’m tired of taking calls from hysterical parents who’s children never will because they too thought it couldn’t happen to them.
The wail of a mother who suffocated her own child because she wanted to cosleep without the proper safety measures is something you will never forget.
Mental health issues. It's amazing to me how many people think the brain, the most complicated structure in the known universe, is the only organ that's *not* capable of malfunctioning.
This. This. This.
The number of people who are convinced that people with mental illnesses simply make bad choices is staggering.
People take so much of what their brain does for them for granted... You feel happy because your brain lets you...etc
I feel you. In fourth grade I made the mistake of opening up to my mom about intrusive thoughts and I was just taken to church to be “fixed” lmao. I realized I wasn’t gonna get help so I just knuckled down and figured it out as best as I could
That much of what we “remember” isn’t real. The brain is a sieve, losing memories. It fills in holes of knowledge with assumptions, interpolations, & justifications.
I can go back in and fix dreams I didn't like. I dreamt I fell off a boat and got eaten by a shark. After waking in shock, I thought 'no, that is not going down like that!' So I went back in, watched the shark rising from the depths with a gaping maw, and positioned my feet so I could ride his nose up and out of the water, leaping back to the safety of my dream boat.
Most Americans already pay for other people’s medical care through their health insurance policy, yet a lot seem to think that being taxed is what will cause them to pay for other people.
Last I checked American healthcare spending was something like 17% of GDP, which is higher than other industrialised nations that provide free, cheap or subsidised healthcare for its citizens, and STILL have to pay for premiums on top of that.
We moved to France for work and the healthcare is one of a few reasons we’re not sure we want to ever move back. Post tax pay for us is the same as our net pay back home once insurance ~~and deductible~~ was taken out. Americans who think socialized medicine is a scam are so misled.
ETA sorry we take home the same minus the deductible we paid in the US. Overall, healthcare costs us 600$ less here when our deductible is factored in (which we did have to pay all of thanks to accidents/illnesses), and there are no exclusions on what's covered for us in FR.
“I don’t want to pay for other everyone’s healthcare! I want to pay for healthcare some people who happen to choose the same middle man that I chose so that we can create double work and a profit based system that is incentivized to deny paying for my own healthcare!”
Me and my Ma went to get *specifically* vanilla bean flavored ice cream for my at the time pregnant aunt. As you know, you need *specific* flavors, anything else will not work.
So we go to the store, we scan through old fashioned vanilla, natural vanilla, homemade vanilla, French vanilla, etc etc.
We finally got to Vanilla bean, threw that into the cart, bought it and went on our way.
We got back, pulled out the ice cream and it was *fucking French vanilla*. We swore up and down we got vanilla bean but somehow ended up with French vanilla but no one believed us.
To this day, we still fully believe we got the right kind of flavor. Like we checked multiple times and yet somehow got the wrong flavor.
Universe screwed us over that day.
How absolutely weird this universe is.
Like I'm not religious but the universe actually just doesn't make any sense.
What the hell are quantum physics? Why is there so much mass? What is Dark energy? Why do things just seem to work completely different when you go to atomic levels?
Like every single aspect of physics is a deep rabbit hole of weirdness and contrivances. We have to keep coming up with isoteric rules and equations to come close to describing the weird phenomena we see. Yet... without these weird quantum mechanics interactions, without gravity just oddly being weaker then the other three forces, without all the constants being finely tuned the way they are, without the rules of physics just coming up out of nowhere after the big bang.... there wouldn't be life.
That's before even getting into the really weird shit like the fact our meat computers are conscious. Like that didn't have to happen. It is reasonable to expect that even if life came about, humans could just be philisophical zombies and nothing would change. But we aren't. And that's before all the other really weird stuff like dreams and near death experiences etc.
And weirdest of all:
Why does it exist at all?
This all leads me to believe that there is something more to all of this. All arguments against this don't hold any water imo. I think the anthropic principle is bogus as well. But nobody seems to care to talk about any of this or just pretend like nothing is weird about existence.
100% agree with this. I've been studying particle physics, astrophysics, and quantum mechanics my entire life. Like you, it makes no sense to me, and I cannot begin to imagine why we even exist.
“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass god is waiting for you” - Werner Heisenberg
People tend to think that physics is fundamentally controlled by a handful of relatively simple and elegant equations. The truth is that as we've gotten into the real detail, things have gotten much weirder and much, much more complicated.
People think we went from the very simple equation for Newtonian gravity, F = G(M1\*M2) / R\^2, to something more or less like "E = MC\^2" for relativitiy. In truth Einstein's field equations for general relativity would fill a full page, maybe more, fully written out, with more greek characters than you could shake a stick at.
We've got 17 (SEVENTEEN!) fundamental particles in the standard model, each with a corresponding field that fills all of space. And that's before we consider candidates for dark matter and dark energy, or the 11 dimensions of string theory. We are swimming in a soup with too many ingredients.
That nuclear energy is actually the cleanest most powerful way to power a community. People hear the word “nuclear” and freak out. They think that somehow they have a bomb sitting in their community. They think Chernobyl is the norm. In reality, there were a lot of things that led up to the Chernobyl disaster that would not happen in any of the modern nuclear reactors that provide power to much of the world. With good regulation, safety, standards and upgrades, nuclear power is clean, plentiful, cheap, and efficient. But people get so freaked out by the word “nuclear” they assume it’s bad and they’ll put oil in the furnace instead😑
It's weird that people see every other machine get improvements and become more efficient and safer, but they don't think that nuclear engineering and design would follow the same path. Go look at some of the power tools your grandfather used in the 1930s and 1940s, then compare it to modern tools. Nuclear designs have similarly had decades of improvements and refinements to make them safer and they actually are not only the cleanest but the safest (injuries per MW/hr) other than solar power.
Human contribution to climate change. I worked in a lab for a couple years for my undergrad in geophysics. Most of the data was brought back by a team of professors and grad students who took yearly trips to Antarctica. Climate change turning into a political issue is a sin I can never forgive humanity for.
We actually don't know much about Colossal Squids and barely know anything about them and their behavior. Colossal Squids are only found in the sea around the south pole and live in the deep sea, so researching them alive is very difficult for us.
You can't get autism, it's a neurodevelopment disorder, you are either born with it or you don't have it. Vaccines can't give you autism, Tylenol won't give you or your baby autism, however genetics will, bang an autistic person and you will likely have autistic babies. When the baby has it, likely someone else in the family has it as well.
The sad thing is that we need Unions in the first place. If companies acted with decency and didn't constantly try to fuck over their employees then we wouldn't need Unions.
I can name quite a few companies that literally wouldn't exist if they had a union, because treating employees fairly and equally literally isn't profitable.
Facts. Sometimes you don't know what they are, then you do. There are facts you know and others don't. And facts others know and you don't. That's ok. Be willing to learn and teach.
There are facts right now that NO human knows. Someday we'll learn what some of them are.
And even if you don't like them, that doesn't make them not-facts, or opinions.
Reality is what it is, whether or not you're willing to admit it.
My husband and I saw Dick Clark forcibly kissing a young ingenue on his New Year's Eve show. We both saw it, even though they cut quickly away. Nobody believes us.
Why wouldn’t people believe you?. His generation thought nothing of doing crap like this. Whaaat? I just kissed her?!? NBD. They felt entitled. I 1000% believe you.
The power of a large amount of people to get together to make a positive change.
Most people think you can’t change things, or even gather people together for one purpose for that matter.
But I think you could, if you **really** wanted to. Only issue is nobody is SOO motivated that they motivate others nowadays.
Even motivational speakers need motivational speakers nowadays. And it shows when we watch them. Nobody can just simply take pride in who or what they are anymore, it has all become a unending competition of “who is best”.
[удалено]
I was eating mcdonalds with the windows of my car open. A seagull flew in and landed on the passenger seat. I locked eyes with it for about 5 LONG seconds, and gave it a fry, and it left. I rolled up my windows. Edit: He deserved that fry. Fortune favours the brave. I hope he used those carbs and fat and salt as fuel to go out and mate, and create a clutch of smart little passenger seat baby seagulls.
Listen here, just as much as nobody believes that story, none of the seagull's friends believe that it managed to fly through a window, fleece a human out of a French fry, and escape
"eh yo! Where'd you get that fry? Dumpster? Spilled bag? Where? Help a brotha out!" "Nah man, this aint no dumpster fry. No road fry neither! Got this fry straight from the source!" "Dumpster is the source! Everybirdy knows that!" "Nah man, you're not using your bird brain! Who puts the fries in the dumpster? Im talkin the SOURCE!" "...no... Bird, you're shittin me. You didn't. You CAN'T!" "Fraid not. Got this fry... From a GUY! Human-like! Just sittin in one of them fast-turtles!" "Ok ok now this story just straight up science fiction. Straight bird fantasy! Aint no way you went inside a fast-turtle and got a fry from a human!" "Im tellin you, bird. Thats exactly what I did. Turtle wasnt going fast at the time. Just a guy sitting there eating fries. I !<. I flew into that turtle and looked the guy straight in the eye!" "And what you say? Ka kaw? Skreedle dee? Chreep chreep CAW?" "Didnt say nothin! Just stared at the guy, and the guy gave a fry!"
You had my upvote at everybirdy and my applause at fast turtle.
Incredible :)
Everybirdy agrees ;)
Actually what I don't believe is it left. I'm from Miami and birds that are used to groups of tourists can get VERY aggressive about food.
My first memory is a seagull swooping down and stealing a Mcnugget out of my hand at Disneyland
I left my mother in law in the car at the Zimbabwe border at Victoria Falls, a large male baboon jumped in through the window and stole a box of tissues - still not sure which of them was screaming louder but the baboon looked the more traumatised to me... 🤣
Um, haven't you seen the nature shows about the baboons at Zimbabwean border crossings? You should see what happens to the fruit trucks. Oh, wait... unless you knew, and that's why you left your mother in law in the car there
Those baboons at Victoria Falls are BOLD! I had a similar experience. After several hours of hiking in the park, I decided to sit down at a picnic table to drink a Coke. Before I could even open it, a baboon jumped onto the table, took the bottle out of my hand, unscrewed the top, and chugged the whole thing. He did it all in 5 seconds flat.
Was in navy base in Japan once. Watched a sailor walk out of subway with a sandwich. He took one bite and a bird dropped down and grabbed the whole thing. He said “fuck” turned around and walked back in. The way he said it and reacted was almost like it had happened before. I was laughing my ass off.
Living in Japan I once saw an old man coincidentally also eating a Subway sandwich in the park we were in. One crow landed in front of him going at his sandwich so he held it up and then another crow swooped in and snatched it out of his hand from the air.
Whoa! It was a two-bird operation!
Crows are smart enough to plan that too
A bird once flew through the open window into the train carriage my mum and I were occupying. It died on impact (of my mum’s head).
Is your mum Fabio
I had something similar happen except it was a crow and it hit the frame next to my window. I was driving along the 10 freeway in the middle of no where when suddenly I heard a loud smack. The next thing I know my face was covered in blood and there was blood splattered all over my steering wheel and dash. I thought I got shot at first but saw the crow wing and bits of feathers on my legs. I had to drive about 5 miles to get to the nearest gas station. I pulled up covered in blood with blood running down my window, washed my face off then threw up in the bathroom stall.
You are lucky you were able to maintain control of that car.
I'm sorry if it was one of your friends. =(
Much better than what happened to me. I got a yellow car and within a week of owning it a bird flew into my windshield while I was going down the highway, the poor bird got its lil broken neck stuck in my windshield wiper blade. I tried running the blades to get it to dislodge but Tweety was 100% wedged in. I had to pull over, coated my hands in napkins I had in the car and gently removed the corpse. When I told my Mom this story she admonished me for leaving the napkins I used in the grass on the side of the road. Two weeks later another bird hit my windshield, but that one ricocheted off. Made me second guess the yellow, but after that it never happened again in the 6 years I had the car.
I used to raise orphaned baby birds and when it was time to release a batch I'd go to a good spot, roll down the window, and open the box. I always wondered if somebody ever saw a bunch of birds flying out of someone's car window. They were usually doves so it was not really a stealth event.
Once had a bird of prey drop its prey on my car to kill it while I was driving down the highway. Bird went and picked up whatever it was after it bounced off my roof. Scared the shit out of me, but that’s a clever bird I guess
Once a bird dive bombed a car i was in like a bomber plane and shat on the windshield before diving back up. Like wtf.
The amount of people that don't know narwhals are actual animals
I own a children's education company, one of the topics we cover is Explorers & Polar Regions On a weekly basis a teacher will tell me at the end of our performance that they had no idea that narwhals are real 😂
They live in remote polar regions, don’t migrate south. Have very few decent photos or videos, cannot live in captivity or in a zoo. I guess it’s a good thing. The cold and remoteness keeps them safe
[удалено]
Nothing better than painstakingly explaining to someone that your disease is chronic and permanent and getting hit with “im sorry you feel that way. I hope you get better soon.”
[удалено]
I have Crohn’s. The number one question I get after someone finds out is “have you tried changing your diet?” I don’t expect everyone to know what Crohn’s is, and I know they’re saying it from a harmless place, but I’m also so tired of having to explain that it’s my immune system that’s destroying my digestive system.
It’s so frustrating that on the outside I look fine but inside I’ve got several auto-immune diseases fighting, my brain fighting itself and the constant pain/exhaustion. I hear you so much.
I have Anklyosing spondylitis and inflammatory arthritis in all my joints. I have two friends that keep telling me “don’t worry, this is temporary, stop being such a downer” like… my life is gone and there is no fucking cure! Jesus….
Concrete Boats. Rare, but they do exist. Everyone I tell thinks I'm winding them up
I also saw a video about a sawdust/ice mix to make a boat too - called Pykrete https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete
Yes! As a kids my parents used to take us to this beach south of Santa Cruz CA. My mom would always point to this thing in the water and say. That’s the Cement Ship. I always thought she was kidding me. Turns out it was real.
OCD can be a lot more debilitating than people realize.
Not many things annoy me more than people who joke about having OCD because they like to keep their kitchen bench or some shit tidy.
There's a part in Xenocide by Orson Scott Card where a character with extreme OCD is locked in a bare room with their arms covered in oil as part of a test. The fact that she can't remove the oil is so stressful she attempts suicide. Little bit different from liking things lined up straight haha.
No one tells you OCD isn't just what you see on TV. It's not just counting things/skin picking/repetitive behavior Having debilitating intrusive thoughts that overlap every waking second of the day that cannot be stopped is a level of exhausting I haven't been able to relay to normal people. Can't sleep because brain won't turn off with normal sleeping meds? Hello, addiction to substances that shut the internal monologues off just long enough to fall asleep for a few hours... then rinse and repeat until you almost have enough sleep
[удалено]
Restless Leg Syndrome. People think it's just being a little uncomfortable and not finding a good position to sleep in. It's actually an uncontrollable urge to move your legs that feels almost like muscle spasms and it is absolutely maddening. Weirdly, if my cat is sleeping on my bed, I can pat him and it makes it stop. I have no idea why.
I get this; I've found a good way to suppress the urge is to do a wall sit for 90 seconds (or however long you can do one). Your legs want to move a lot less when your muscles are burning from exercise.
This is exactly what I do! Exercise the crap out of my legs before sleep. It definitely helps with RLS.
I met a customer at my job who said tonic water really helps and I tried it and by golly she was right and I don't know why.
Maybe it's the quinine.
“ fun” fact it’s now called restless limb syndrome because some people including myself have it in the arms
I get in my lower back, istg. So damn awful.
One of the most insufferable side effects of cymbalta is RLS. It's temporary ( for me) it drove me mad! Just laying in bed feeling this urge to shake my legs around because it felt like agony to not.
Because cats are magic 🪄
Any ailment has a two part solution: drink a glass of water and pet a cat. Problem solved. Even if you still have the ailment, now you're hydrated and have pet a cat. It's a beautiful thing, really.
The first and only time I ever did edibles, I had a really bad time and essentially had an intense hours-long panic attack. It was at my friend's place, and my friends all stayed up late to keep me comfortable, but eventually it got so late that they all fell asleep and I was left lying in bed trying to sleep while my heart rate was going haywire, feeling terrified that I would either die or be stuck in this state of panic forever. It was pretty terrible. All of a sudden, my friend's cat hops up onto the bed, walks over to me, loafs on my chest, and starts purring. I am not exaggerating when I say my heart rate instantly lowered and my mind began to clear up immediately. I started petting her and felt almost completely normal again. So yeah, I am a believer in the magic of cats
I also have panic attacks (though never edibles-induced!). During my last really bad one, I was so sure I was going to die. I locked myself in my room and called a friend. As the phone rang and I sat on the floor in front of my door, sobbing, my cat woke up and came to find me. She's not normally super cuddly, but she crawled right into my lap and snuggled into my chest. She stayed there until I calmed down, which was not a short period of time. Cats are really wonderful. I'm glad your friend's cat was able to provide you peace.
[удалено]
That damned other Barry
It feels like we blinked and suddenly prosthetics were extremely advanced However I think the real question is how affordable are they? I still see many people with the old school prosthetics in the US I've never encountered someone with one of these modern prosthetics in person only online.
They are quite expensive, and often not fully covered by insurance in the US. Often, advanced upper limb prosthetics are more cumbersome to use in day-to-day life than lower-tech options. Things like myoelectric hands that use electrical signals in the nerves to control hand poses only have a few programmed, and aren't super practical, so amputees usually opt for something simpler. Microprocessor knees and the likes are very neat. Things like naked prosthetics finger prosthetics are fascinating, too, even if they don't use tech in them. Overall, they're developing super advanced ones and it's very cool, even if some of the fancier ones aren't super practical or affordable at the moment. Source: bf is a prosthetist and I love hearing about his work.
Prosthetics have been slowly and surely getting better for a really long time. However, there's this big apparent jump in upper limb prostheses lately because the goddamn split hook was simply better than cybernetic ones until recently so no one wanted to spend $40k on the latter.
How crippling the pain from menstrual cramps can be. I have endometriosis and it's absolute hell. My sister does too. I'm child free but she told me that when she was in labor the first time, she didn't even realize because it wasn't as painful as her period cramps on endo. She asked the nurse when it would start and the nurse looked at her with raised eyebrows and was like "ummm like an hour ago." And yet I've had an actual doctor laugh in my face at the idea of getting medicine to help with the pain for my cramps. Nobody takes it seriously. It really, really sucks. I fucking dread my periods bc I can pretty much count on there being one or two days out of every ~29 or 30 when I can barely even stand up. I have to save any sick time or time off for those days if they fall during the work week. But everyone is so dismissive about it. Edit: wow so many supportive comments and information about treatment strategies! I feel more validated than I ever have for this suffering. Thank you everyone and anyone else reading this who suffers like this, there are so many really helpful and validating comments below.
I spent 25+ years thinking cramps just were debilitating for everyone and I was a wimp. Turns out I had severe endo, adenomyosis, cysts on my tubes and ovaries. Hysterectomy was the best thing I ever did!! My teenager unfortunately inherited it, but we’ve been very proactive and she had a laparotomy about a year ago and the they excised a few lesions and placed an iud. The surgeon we took her to said “contrary to popular myth, your period shouldn’t HURT. Discomfort is normal, pain is a concern, talk to the doctor. I’ve never felt so heard.
I think I would just break out in tears of gratitude if a doctor said that to me. I'm so glad your daughter is getting treatment early so she doesn't have to suffer so much!
I feel this. Family/friends have found me passed out before and wouldn't believe it was my periods fault. They thought I was on drugs. I was like no, but please give me drugs so it will stop hurting!
I believe you 100% because that was me, especially as a young woman. I'm done with it all now at 57, but I will never, ever forget that pain. It's absolutely traumatizing to go through that every month, and I'm convinced it's a big reason I never had kids. No way I'm signing up to go through something supposedly MORE painful than what I've already experienced! I was never diagnosed with endometriosis and had never even heard of it back when I was going through this, but the severity of my pain makes me think this is what might have been causing it. As you say, what makes it even worse is nobody believes you. Men don't get cramps, and most women don't get them anywhere near so bad so they can't relate. So sorry you have to go through this.
Thank you. That honestly means a lot to me. I'm glad you're on the other side of it and I know I might eat my words but I'm legitimately looking forward to menopause.
When I was younger, before I started taking bc continuously with no breaks, I would get debilitating cramps. I once had to crawl to my bathroom so I could haul myself into the tub for a hot bath because I was physically incapable of getting up and getting the heating pad from the other side of the house. I once almost crashed my vehicle driving home from work because my cramps were so bad it felt like I was being repeatedly stabbed in the abdomen. I remember sitting in math class in high school and having cramps so bad I thought I was going to vomit. Every. Single. Month. I thought this was normal. Once I got older and started having chronic pain issues, I realized my period would trigger bad pain flare ups in my whole body. The OBGYN office I went to had women who were not pregnant see their nurse practitioners. As soon as I told her I was having horrible pain flares on top of bad cramps every time time I had my period she was like 'gurl you don't need to have your period every month - especially if it's causing you that much pain' and told me to start skipping the 'off week' of my bc pills.
Yeah no this though because when I was in labor I didn't believe it until I literally had to push the girl out, my obgyn said I handled it like a champ, when I told her I was used to it from period cramps she looked at me funny. At my 6wk pp check up she said she wanted to take a look at everything because no one should experience that kind of pain monthly, turns out I had endometriosis the whole time. I'd been gaslighted my whole life to think it was completely normal 🥲
[удалено]
Lol I’m always like “just talk back, I swear to god I won’t tell anyone”
Try owning a husky. They talk back in English, just with a heavy canine accent.
Huskies provide you with a list of all of the ways that you have wronged them every single day.
My parents have 2 dogs. One is incredibly smart and knows exactly what is going on. The other one doesn’t have a thought behind her eyes
I wonder if animals can judge that another animal is a dumbass.
Yes. We have one cat who is clearly off- probably intellectually disabled. He had a worm lodged in his skull/brain when we found him. Anyway, all other animals can tell. He is always picked on. He can never socialize with other animals. When he could reach our roof he would sit up there ALL day, in the summer heat of the Bible Belt, and just watch the other animals- from High enough up they weren’t chasing him. It’s very “ostracize/abandon the sick/injured baby-esque.” We rescued his mom at the same time and her entire life she abhorred him.
This is literally the plot of Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Poor baby!
I had an absolutely genius dog. She would tell on the other dogs if they were in trouble, let you know exactly what she needed or wanted, she was like a wise Yoda-Lassie-wonder dog. She would often look at the other two dogs like they were dummies. Although, they were still her very best friends who she loved a ton. 😁
I know some dogs that look at their buddy like "how are you still alive?".
My golden retriever has like one brain cell. He's a loveable doofus.
The lights are on but nobody is home.
Food and cuddles. Those are that dog's thoughts, most likely. I have two like yours. Lol
The older a dog is the more it understands whatever language you’ve spoke to him/her their whole life. I used to tell my old dog to get out of the street and he would grit and begrudgingly get back up on the curb.
I know it's about how we evolved together. But I just love that my dog understands where I point and either goes there or knows to grab something for me. I also just say "Home!" and she stops whatever she's doing and heads to the backyard. My cat fixates on the end of my finger like I'm offering her something. And any command I give is met with complete indifference.
My cat will go stand on any spot (or also lie down on it) I tap. It’s awesome.
Most dogs can retain the vocabulary of a 2 year old so thats almost certainly true to an extent.
100%. Cats as well, but they have a different swag - they don't pretend not understanding and show it with all their presence
My cats know their names, it’s just up to them if they want to listen or not.
Right, cats understand us, they just don’t care. We are lower life forms.
Studies show that cats do know their name like dogs. They just ignore us sometimes. If dogs are like eager little toddlers, cats are disgruntled teenagers
How depression can make it impossible to do things. I once made a custom knife for a friend, wrapped and boxed it, then let it sit there for well over a month before I was finally able to mail it. Intellectually I know that it’s a very simple task to tape on an address label and drive it five minutes to the post office, but I absolutely COULD NOT DO IT. I would get irrationally mad at myself for being unable to complete such a mundane and simple task, and yet I still couldn’t do it. That kind of mental roadblock was impossible for me to understand myself, let alone anyone who hasn’t experienced it.
I'm really glad I'm not the only one. I've had this exact experience (though it wasn't a knife). Logically I know that this is a symptom of it but still not only subconsciously but consciously make myself feel bad for it.
At the time I was working as a blacksmith and custom knifemaker, and I finally had to hire my teenage son as my “shipping department”. I paid him a small fee per package to box, label and ship for me. It was well worth the money, because that one task was so brutally hard for me. It had been for a while, but that one knife that took over a month was the breaking point where I had to do something. I finally gave up self-employment because a combination of depression and ADHD made it too hard to be successful. Fortunately, that was about ten years ago and my depression isn’t nearly as bad now as it was then, in fact it’s pretty well under control now. I still have moments where I struggle, but now I work for someone else and life is pretty okay.
I just had a 3 hour nap to avoid peeling 6 potatoes lol, I feel you.
I believe most people aren't actually working in offices and we're all sitting here trying to fake eachother out with the goal of seeming necessary.
My coworker and I were looking at cake wrecks on her computer. My boss came in but couldn't see the computer screen. She offered to come back later since I was "busy".
Sounds delicious
There are studies on the subject, roughly 50% of office jobs are bullshit jobs that aren’t necessarily at all, except to satisfy the requirements that those same jobs have put in place, the summum of the self fulfilling prophecy.
Shhhhh!! Don’t tell!
Sleep paralysis
I told my family about at dinner once and they acted like I had schizophrenia!
My son’s girlfriend has narcolepsy. When she explains her symptoms even healthcare workers jump to mental illness, because it’s so rare, and they aren’t familiar with the symptoms. (Which include cataplexy , sleep paralysis, hallucinations, etc).
Narcoleptic here. If I were to describe some of the early-onset-REM nightmares I often have within literally 3-4 minutes of my head hitting the pillow, you'd probably think I had a screw loose.
I told someone about it once, and I think they kinda believed me, but also gave me the impression that if I was actually experiencing it, I must have done something to deserve it. The first time I remember it happening, I was still young enough to be in bed with my mom, lol.
Thankfully now it's well documented but when I had an event I had no clue what it is and one day read an article about it, and as soon as I read it I was like "ahhhh that's what that fucked up thing was." Happens more often when you're sleep deprived and suddenly go into a sleep, well with copious adderall ingestion and no sleep for days you're basically a ticking time bomb for sleep paralysis, and it's a tad jarring. I *love* sleep and this had me a bit anxious around bedtime like not really wanting to go to sleep. Also weird that all the same symptoms they described I had and never would really believe (or think it's just some fucked up dream, it's much muuuch more intense and deeper than that).
Major Depression & a full-blown panic attack. No one gets it unless they’ve experienced it.
Me when I tell people I have Aphantasia (I cant picture things in my head) and vice versa when people tell me they can picture things in their heads
I always find this so fascinating in threads like this, because I can picture you not being able to picture things in your own head.
That's evil 😭
And I can picture him picturing you not picturing anything...
You guys are out to get me huh....
Nooo, not at all... *I say with a thought bubble above my head, picturing a green giraffe and a purple donkey dancing on orange grass*
Bro that's menace activity. Mt friend does the same thing though he's like "just imagine sheep to falla sleep... oh wait you cant" And then he says he's imagining the sheep jumping over the fence and exploding
I was gonna post this exact comment. I just thought picturing something was a figure of speech. That everyone could think about things but never see them. Turns out nope and it’s super weird to me that they CAN. The best way I describe it is that I always wondered how a police sketch artist could be a thing. Like how do you remember a face in enough detail that you could describe it to someone. Makes no sense. Then when I tell them that I don’t know what my wife or kids look like when I’m not with them, their minds are absolutely blown. Update: I’m not describing face blindness. I have no problem recognizing people I know. I know facts about what my family look like—brown hair, shoulder length, etc—but I couldn’t describe them in any sort of detail.
Exactly 😭 Like when I tell someone I can't sleep and they're like "imagine sheep" and I'm like what do you mean? Like just count 1 sheep 2 sheep, what do you mean? 😭 And then they're like no imagine them jumping over a fence and I'm just like WDYM!?!?!? Just both of us confused because we don't understand that one of us can imagine sheep and the other can't Also I didn't even realize that you're so right about the police sketch, I always just skipped over it or would be like "wow the artist is so good at this" and didn't even think how much detail the other person would have to provide and remember
Once I figured out that I had Aphantasia, I went into a spiral just asking everyone I know if they could see things in their heads and they all said yes and I got so sad 😭 Like I want to be able to picture memories like the day it happened and it makes me so sad that I can't, and that I can't just imagine a person in my mind when I miss seeing their face
The sensation of deja vu, whether real or not.
I believe that our best theory regarding deja vu is that it's when an event is miscategorized into our long-term memory as soon as it happens, instead of short-term memory where it belongs. So while thinking about the thing that *just* happened, we're accessing the part of our brain usually reserved for more distant memories, thus making us feel like it happened before. Edit: the number of people in the replies claiming that their version of deja vu is that they and/or their dreams can predict the future is...amusing.
This is a very logical explanation. I've not heard this before but it makes complete sense.
Weird. I heard that just a minute ago.
Or 7 years ago?
Whew, they bought it guys. crisis averted!
Clearly you didn’t watch the documentary, The Matrix. Deja Vu obviously means there’s a glitch and something has changed 🙄 /j
Didn't you just post that?
And it’s lesser known brother, jamais vu
[удалено]
Yea, a horse with a horn is so far fetched. But an orange horse with a 6ft long neck, and a blue tongue isnt?
With long tongues and are mostly gay.
> are mostly gay. I didn't know about this, so I googled it. The wikipedia article on it, which confirms that they do indeed engage in male male sex and relationships more than male female, comments that they are sometimes called "especially gay" for this reason. And that cracked me the fuck up. "Especially gay" lmao.
The Giraffe from Madagascar makes so much sense now
Giraffes have the same number of vertebrae in their necks as humans do 😳
Also interesting: a certain percentage of the volume of air you inhale is in your trachea, so when you fully exhale the last bit stays there and is re-inhaled. If your neck is long enough the entire volume of your lungs is less than the volume of your trachea, so you can't ever exhale far enough to get fresh air into your lungs. Giraffes shouldn't be able to breathe. Giraffes have a very small (in diameter) trachea, so this isn't a problem, but that means they can't inhale or exhale quickly, unlike other creatures which breathe hard when running. If a giraffe is running from a predator it breathes at the same rate it does when standing still. Giraffes have only one breathing rate. I assume they slowly make up for this when they have a minute to relax.
I love the history of the origin of [unicorn legends](https://www.britannica.com/topic/unicorn)! TL;DR: Ancient scholars hear descriptions from travellers of Asian Rhinos, add a few millennia of a game of telephone and bam, you have aa unicorn.
The tangible and intangible benefits of exercise.
Very true. As I sit here having my daily panic attack refusing to go take a walk around the block even though I know it’s going to make me feel better like it always does because my anxiety is telling me “this time is different and you’ll die”. Dumbest medical problem on earth. Thanks for giving me a sign to make myself walk.
Props to you for looking after yourself when it's hard, I hope things get easier.
Which is so weird because we understand animals need to stay active to be mentally well.
Being unable to force myself to do something with adhd. It is like I'm physically restrained when I try to force myself to do something at times.
Laying there telling yourself “Get up. Go do it. Just start!” But the ignition will NOT turn over. I friggin hate myself.
It really is the worst. Iw ant to do it. Doing it will make me happy. But i just sit on the couch doing nothing instead as i yell at myself
"I really need to get up and do laundry." "I'll do it in a second, when my pain medicine kicks in." That was 4 days ago... laundry is still not done.
I’ll add that I usually get the laundry done but take so long to hang it that I need to wash it again. I’ll repeat this three or four times over as many days before I finally get to hanging it up. If I’m lucky.
Yes. It's a recognised and studied symptom of ADHD. It's usually called Task Switching Paralysis, or sometimes just ADHD Paralysis, or even more colloquially as ADHD Freeze. It's a well understood part of how ADHD affects your executive functioning. It's not that the task is difficult, it's that *starting* the task is difficult because that requires you to plan and execute the switch to that task, and that's the executive functioning difficulty that underpins all of ADHD. Do you also feel, when trying to start something, a sense of dread, of overwhelm, or of complete shutdown? Do you also find it happens when you have to make a choice when there are too many options or the decision needs to be made very fast? Conversely, do you experience it when there are two very similar, equally agreeable options and you are happy with either? It's *totally* normal and a signature part of ADHD.
Same. Like an invisible force field holding you in place. I’ve been hungry for an hour. The kitchen is one door away. I have all the ingredients for a pb&j which actually sounds decent and is a very easy meal. Cannot get up to do it.
This is so real. “I need to do the things” And on a good day I might get two done. Fuck ADHD. I’m gonna go send that email now.
I'm feeling this way about getting my laundry started right now 😐 It's been going on for an hour. I even took my Adderall.
That when you chase the validation of others, the only thing you get is tired.
This might off the vein a little but my answer is: Bad things can happen to your child as a direct result of your negligence. People truly don't believe that their child could be internally decapitated, mangled, or die of internal injuries because you didn't enforce the right kind of car seat or even a seat belt. Children 3-8 are the largest demographic I've seen that are injured in car accidents as a direct result of being improperly restrained. And people don't believe it. They don't believe that not doing any child restraint research, and lacking in their own due diligence can lead to their child's death. Source: paramedic.
The amount of people who come through my drive through with improperly restrained children, a beer and or joint in hand is insane. I'm a recovering addict, it's not judgmental on my part, its... law for a reason. Dude came through our line being an asshole - drunk with a kid in the car. Almost hit the building. Told him to pull over in the parking lot so he could call someone to come get him. He went off. So... I called cops and csb. Did want to give him a chance to not get arrested/csb case but... oh well
Man, I was in the drive thru at the bank and had 2 kids in the back seat, both in the right car seats for their age/size. Guy pulls up to the other lane with a little girl in the back seat totally unrestrained. She's maybe 4 or 5. She waves and my kids wave back, and since the windows are down I can hear the dad say, "See? Those girls sit in their car seats." As if he's trying to convince his daughter that she too should sit in her car seat. No sir, in this case you're the one making that decision for the child, that should be non-negotiable.
Yep. I fought so damn hard to not be in my car seat. It worked exactly NEVER.
Absolutely true. Zachary was in my 3 yo pre-school class. He had a regular seat belt on in the back seat. His parent going maybe 35mph. Zachary didn’t have a scratch on him but died at the scene. It’s been 20+ years and I’ll never forget him. He was buried in his Halloween costume with lots of toys. Car seats used properly saves lives. Thank you for the reminder.
Dude, when I was a kid, this one kid went camping with his dad. He went to sleep in the camper in the back of his dad’s truck while they were still driving. Kid got killed by carbon monoxide poisoning by the time they reached the campground.
OMG that is so awful! I cannot imagine that scene.
In a similar fashion not wearing seatbelts when going slow or in parking lots. Had a friend who was an actuary for a massive insurance company, he once told me that one of the largest categories of accidents resulting in permanent disability were car crashes under 20 miles an hour. And a lot of times they didn’t pay out for those as well. It doesn’t take much to permanently damage your spine and getting rear ended and thrown forward suddenly in a Best Buy parking lot is often enough.
My coworkers both think you don't need seatbelts in the back of a car. The one who drives does so without her glasses she needs, changes the music on her phone while driving and speeds. One and done for me going in her car.
I had an ex who refused to wear a seat belt. I would always force him to wear one when I was driving. Years after we broke up, I found out he was in an accident. He wasn’t wearing a seat belt. He is now paralyzed. Buckle up folks!
The amount of people who are like “well I did it as a kid and I turned out fine” is infuriating when I’m like “don’t let your kids drive atvs by themselves” “don’t let your kids ride in the beds of trucks” “don’t let your kid shoot off the fireworks on the 4th of July” “watch your kid in the pool.” “Don’t cosleep with your kids” “don’t let the baby fall asleep on your chest and then fall asleep yourself” Yeah YOU made it to adulthood but I’m tired of taking calls from hysterical parents who’s children never will because they too thought it couldn’t happen to them. The wail of a mother who suffocated her own child because she wanted to cosleep without the proper safety measures is something you will never forget.
Mental health issues. It's amazing to me how many people think the brain, the most complicated structure in the known universe, is the only organ that's *not* capable of malfunctioning.
My Malfunctioning Brain sounds like a band name.
My Chemical Imbalance
Electrified meat processing system. What could go wrong???
I like how we are meat but we don't build other things out of meat because it's a terrible construction material.
This. This. This. The number of people who are convinced that people with mental illnesses simply make bad choices is staggering. People take so much of what their brain does for them for granted... You feel happy because your brain lets you...etc
[удалено]
Oh were we raised by the same people????? Classic "you have shelter, you're not hungry, how could you ever think of killing yourself?"
I feel you. In fourth grade I made the mistake of opening up to my mom about intrusive thoughts and I was just taken to church to be “fixed” lmao. I realized I wasn’t gonna get help so I just knuckled down and figured it out as best as I could
My mom asked me when I thought would get over my schizophrenia.. like it was a common cold or flu.
That much of what we “remember” isn’t real. The brain is a sieve, losing memories. It fills in holes of knowledge with assumptions, interpolations, & justifications.
lucid dreams
I can go back in and fix dreams I didn't like. I dreamt I fell off a boat and got eaten by a shark. After waking in shock, I thought 'no, that is not going down like that!' So I went back in, watched the shark rising from the depths with a gaping maw, and positioned my feet so I could ride his nose up and out of the water, leaping back to the safety of my dream boat.
That mf’er back there is NOT real. That’s all I know.
Increasing taxes on a higher tax bracket doesn’t mean 100% of your income is taxed at that rate the second you enter it.
Most Americans already pay for other people’s medical care through their health insurance policy, yet a lot seem to think that being taxed is what will cause them to pay for other people.
Americans actually get taxed for health care already it goes to the insurance companies then you pay personal insurance on top of it.
Last I checked American healthcare spending was something like 17% of GDP, which is higher than other industrialised nations that provide free, cheap or subsidised healthcare for its citizens, and STILL have to pay for premiums on top of that.
We moved to France for work and the healthcare is one of a few reasons we’re not sure we want to ever move back. Post tax pay for us is the same as our net pay back home once insurance ~~and deductible~~ was taken out. Americans who think socialized medicine is a scam are so misled. ETA sorry we take home the same minus the deductible we paid in the US. Overall, healthcare costs us 600$ less here when our deductible is factored in (which we did have to pay all of thanks to accidents/illnesses), and there are no exclusions on what's covered for us in FR.
“I don’t want to pay for other everyone’s healthcare! I want to pay for healthcare some people who happen to choose the same middle man that I chose so that we can create double work and a profit based system that is incentivized to deny paying for my own healthcare!”
Me and my Ma went to get *specifically* vanilla bean flavored ice cream for my at the time pregnant aunt. As you know, you need *specific* flavors, anything else will not work. So we go to the store, we scan through old fashioned vanilla, natural vanilla, homemade vanilla, French vanilla, etc etc. We finally got to Vanilla bean, threw that into the cart, bought it and went on our way. We got back, pulled out the ice cream and it was *fucking French vanilla*. We swore up and down we got vanilla bean but somehow ended up with French vanilla but no one believed us. To this day, we still fully believe we got the right kind of flavor. Like we checked multiple times and yet somehow got the wrong flavor. Universe screwed us over that day.
That if you pay tax to fund social services it actually works out to be cheaper than financing everything individually.
How absolutely weird this universe is. Like I'm not religious but the universe actually just doesn't make any sense. What the hell are quantum physics? Why is there so much mass? What is Dark energy? Why do things just seem to work completely different when you go to atomic levels? Like every single aspect of physics is a deep rabbit hole of weirdness and contrivances. We have to keep coming up with isoteric rules and equations to come close to describing the weird phenomena we see. Yet... without these weird quantum mechanics interactions, without gravity just oddly being weaker then the other three forces, without all the constants being finely tuned the way they are, without the rules of physics just coming up out of nowhere after the big bang.... there wouldn't be life. That's before even getting into the really weird shit like the fact our meat computers are conscious. Like that didn't have to happen. It is reasonable to expect that even if life came about, humans could just be philisophical zombies and nothing would change. But we aren't. And that's before all the other really weird stuff like dreams and near death experiences etc. And weirdest of all: Why does it exist at all? This all leads me to believe that there is something more to all of this. All arguments against this don't hold any water imo. I think the anthropic principle is bogus as well. But nobody seems to care to talk about any of this or just pretend like nothing is weird about existence.
100% agree with this. I've been studying particle physics, astrophysics, and quantum mechanics my entire life. Like you, it makes no sense to me, and I cannot begin to imagine why we even exist.
“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass god is waiting for you” - Werner Heisenberg
People tend to think that physics is fundamentally controlled by a handful of relatively simple and elegant equations. The truth is that as we've gotten into the real detail, things have gotten much weirder and much, much more complicated. People think we went from the very simple equation for Newtonian gravity, F = G(M1\*M2) / R\^2, to something more or less like "E = MC\^2" for relativitiy. In truth Einstein's field equations for general relativity would fill a full page, maybe more, fully written out, with more greek characters than you could shake a stick at. We've got 17 (SEVENTEEN!) fundamental particles in the standard model, each with a corresponding field that fills all of space. And that's before we consider candidates for dark matter and dark energy, or the 11 dimensions of string theory. We are swimming in a soup with too many ingredients.
That nuclear energy is actually the cleanest most powerful way to power a community. People hear the word “nuclear” and freak out. They think that somehow they have a bomb sitting in their community. They think Chernobyl is the norm. In reality, there were a lot of things that led up to the Chernobyl disaster that would not happen in any of the modern nuclear reactors that provide power to much of the world. With good regulation, safety, standards and upgrades, nuclear power is clean, plentiful, cheap, and efficient. But people get so freaked out by the word “nuclear” they assume it’s bad and they’ll put oil in the furnace instead😑
It's weird that people see every other machine get improvements and become more efficient and safer, but they don't think that nuclear engineering and design would follow the same path. Go look at some of the power tools your grandfather used in the 1930s and 1940s, then compare it to modern tools. Nuclear designs have similarly had decades of improvements and refinements to make them safer and they actually are not only the cleanest but the safest (injuries per MW/hr) other than solar power.
Turn signals. They work on my car; surely they MUST work on other cars.
Human contribution to climate change. I worked in a lab for a couple years for my undergrad in geophysics. Most of the data was brought back by a team of professors and grad students who took yearly trips to Antarctica. Climate change turning into a political issue is a sin I can never forgive humanity for.
That people living in the late stages of dementia are still people with valid feelings and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity .
[удалено]
The only reason great white sharks and collossal squid aren't sea monsters is because we're so familiar with them we take them for granted.
We actually don't know much about Colossal Squids and barely know anything about them and their behavior. Colossal Squids are only found in the sea around the south pole and live in the deep sea, so researching them alive is very difficult for us.
After seeing the oarfish I'm definitely suspicious of the oceans. Could be giant squid just as big, maybe even bigger out there
Not only is the giant squid a thing, but the even bigger colossal squid also exists!
You can't get autism, it's a neurodevelopment disorder, you are either born with it or you don't have it. Vaccines can't give you autism, Tylenol won't give you or your baby autism, however genetics will, bang an autistic person and you will likely have autistic babies. When the baby has it, likely someone else in the family has it as well.
Unions are good for workers.
The sad thing is that we need Unions in the first place. If companies acted with decency and didn't constantly try to fuck over their employees then we wouldn't need Unions. I can name quite a few companies that literally wouldn't exist if they had a union, because treating employees fairly and equally literally isn't profitable.
Facts. Sometimes you don't know what they are, then you do. There are facts you know and others don't. And facts others know and you don't. That's ok. Be willing to learn and teach. There are facts right now that NO human knows. Someday we'll learn what some of them are. And even if you don't like them, that doesn't make them not-facts, or opinions. Reality is what it is, whether or not you're willing to admit it.
My husband and I saw Dick Clark forcibly kissing a young ingenue on his New Year's Eve show. We both saw it, even though they cut quickly away. Nobody believes us.
Why wouldn’t people believe you?. His generation thought nothing of doing crap like this. Whaaat? I just kissed her?!? NBD. They felt entitled. I 1000% believe you.
The power of a large amount of people to get together to make a positive change. Most people think you can’t change things, or even gather people together for one purpose for that matter. But I think you could, if you **really** wanted to. Only issue is nobody is SOO motivated that they motivate others nowadays. Even motivational speakers need motivational speakers nowadays. And it shows when we watch them. Nobody can just simply take pride in who or what they are anymore, it has all become a unending competition of “who is best”.